Robyn Urback: On transparency, Liberal MPs could learn a thing or two from Elizabeth May

From September 15 to 19, B.C. MP Joyce Murray spent $2,851.30 on “parliamentary business” travel. On the 28th, she spent $69.91 for a community event. Ralph Goodale spent $2,663.77 on “regular travel” from September 17 to 18, and $1,421.33 on “special travel” for a stakeholder meeting from September 19 to 20. And Liberal leader Justin Trudeau spent a total of $1,323.54 for travel to two conferences on September 16.

These figures are just some of those now available on the Liberal Party website, as part of Trudeau’s push for greater transparency. Though the postings only go back a few weeks, Liberal MPs and senators will now be expected to track and post their travel and hospitality expenses online as a matter of course. Trudeau said the move should be “a first step in what I hope will be a cascade of transparency and openness as the other parties try to outdo each other.”

Evidently, the move has not catalyzed a wave of interparty competition, which is just as well for Trudeau, leaving his party to lead the pack in terms of transparency. The Prime Minister, meanwhile, is busily distracting Canadians from the most recent of Conservative spending scandals involving former MP Dean Del Mastro and the perpetually troublesome Mike Duffy with promises of better cable television packages and improved experiences at the airport. The NDP, for its part, continues to deride the Liberal motion as a “stunt,” while at the same time touting its own stab at MP ethics reform.

The move is, indeed, a stunt, announced in June just as the RCMP had launched a criminal investigation into the $90,000 cheque Duffy received from Harper’s former chief of staff. Suffice to say the timing was not a coincidence. But the politics behind the plan doesn’t make the push for greater transparency any less worthy, and the Conservatives and NDP would be wise to latch onto the Liberal scheme.

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That said, the Liberal disclosures leave much to be desired in terms of actual useful information, with no details posted beyond the sum total of expenses and their general nature. We don’t know, for example, where Ralph Goodale went from September 17 to 18, why he went there, where he stayed, what method of transportation he used or how much his orange juice cost in the morning. We only know that the total travel bill amounted to $2,663.77.

NDP MP Nathan Cullen, who is a member of the Board of Internal Economy (and also adamant that the Liberals stole the NDP’s transparency idea when his party thought of it first), has said it would be too costly and time-consuming to post more detailed records of travel expenses. According to Cullen, parties would “end up with the staff not doing immigration casework because they’re doing reporting.” Surely, regular Canadians should be able to use that same excuse when it comes time to file their taxes.

Green Party leader and MP Elizabeth May has somehow found the time to keep detailed records of her expenses and post them on her website. May claimed $15,977.18 in travel expenses from 2011 to 2012, for example, most of which is chronicled via expense forms and scanned receipts. We know that May expensed $35.35 in taxi fare in August 2011 for a trip from the Ottawa airport to her Ottawa residence, the latter of which costs $1,550 per month. We also know that she travelled between Vancouver and Ottawa in May and expensed $1,103.36 to attend MP training sessions. If the Liberals are an example to the Conservatives and the NDP, Elizabeth May should be an example to the Liberals.

The proactive disclosure of Liberal MP and senator expenses is a worthy first step, but the information provided must be useful, not just available. It’s a move toward some much-needed transparency, but it’s certainly not there yet. And by the way, Cullen — Elizabeth May got there first.